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Commenting on Kona's Commentary...

Saturday, 19 October 2013 00:10

Kona Coverage

By Devon Palmer
Posted on October 14, 2013 by palmertri

I hope the World Triathlon Corporation starts doing high quality race coverage for all their major Ironman events. It is great to see the race unfold live with actual video on the course and commentating! Most races we are relegated to checking up on splits and the ‘live blog’ newsfeed. I have raced with Mr Matt Lieto and he is what you might call a pretty cool bro. Great to see him and Greg Welch...

doing the commentary. Greg has gotten better, I remember a few years ago he said “doing a good job of it” incessantly and I didn’t hear that phrase this year. We need commentators knowledgeable enough to actually comment on the sport but who also have some charisma. Greg and Matt and Michael Lovato all have insight into the race from their own competitive careers. I wouldn’t mind if Ironman swapped out Michael for someone with a little more flair. Not everyone is suited for that kind of work.

Ironman also needs to hash out a better way to get the commentators information immediately. At times it seemed they had no more idea what was happening than the rest of us. This is occasionally a problem with Tour de France coverage and is probably very tricky to fully resolve. Also, there were constantly times when the camera was trained on one rider but I wanted them to look forwards and back to see if the rider was breaking away or if the group was still nearby!

The women’s race was really exciting. They were finally given a clean field of play and sent separately from the male pros. Last year highlighted the need for this move since Steffen, Cave and Ellis all got penalties on the bike in part due to the lousy male pros who were lingering near them. They couldn’t quite get clear of this one guy. I was ...

NICK MORALES PHOTOS - Above L - Cindy Blackstock and her omnipresent smile. Below R - Exuberant Pam Nielsen.